Currently available automobiles, trucks, watercraft and other forms of transportation rely almost entirely on petroleum products as a fuel source. Recent price increases and availability difficulties have made other fuel sources desirable and the search for these sources more economically feasible. As the price of petroleum increases, other sources of fuel will become economically more attractive.
Some attempts have been made to provide onboard fuel production or fuel supplementing facilities for motor vehicles in the past. Exemplary systems are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,716,084 to Percy and 3,972,811 to Larkins et al.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,716,084 to Percy describes a vehicle mounted furnace burning charcoal or the like in the presence of air and water to produce a combustible gas as fuel for an internal combustion engine. The use of solid fuels in a furnace such as Percy presents significant problems of feed stock distribution and pollution control in today's world.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,972,811 to Larkins et al describes an apparatus for converting human waste into a combustible gas for supplementing gasoline or diesel fuel in an internal combustion engine. The primary fuel remains a petroleum product.
Some fuel production systems integrated into internal combustion systems have been used in stationary applications such as those producing power for use at petroleum well heads. U.S. Pat. No. 3,477,511 to Beard et al describes such a system using heat from an internal combustion engine to continuously refine a portion of the petroleum pumped at a well into a usable fuel. The refined petroleum is used to drive the internal combustion engine. The system is not suitable for use in a mobile application.
Alcohol has been used for sometime as a supplement in some fuel systems and has been produced commercially through distillation for a number of other uses. However, the use of alcohol as a motor fuel in internal combustion engines has only recently been considered as an alternative to, instead of a supplement to, petroleum products. As conventionally used, alcohol is produced through distillation of mash at large, commercial facilities and provided at stations to automobiles in a manner similar to the distribution of gasoline. Heat is needed in the distillation process requiring the consumption of fuel for this process heat.